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As-Salaamu Alaikum,

As you may know, my father, Imam Jamil Al-Amin, formerly H. Rap Brown civil rights leader and humanitarian, was convicted of a murder he did not commit in 2002. 

Upon that conviction, we essentially abandoned him. No tangible noise was ever made and as such, my father's conviction and subsequent exile, a vendetta realized, has gone unchecked. The cruel and unusual punishment, the confession of another man, the medical neglect in hopes that he dies, the gag order, the federal holding of a state prisoner away from his attorney's and family,  we've done nothing about anything and because of our lack of action, much like the man himself, the truth about this case and his legacy have been erased from public view.

If we don't commit to action, the same action he dedicated himself to for the entirety of his life, the same action many of you are benefiting from while he sits suffering silently, then we have turned our backs on our Imam...your brother and should be ashamed. 

We have been fighting this fight in the courts for 20 years and because the outward appearance is that "his people don't even care about him," we haven't gotten anything more than "yes he deserves a new trial but no you can't have one" and again that's on us because, what have we done about it? 

Alhamdulillah though, we've been afforded yet another opportunity and this time, we aren't even asking you to decide his guilt or innocence though it should be obvious, we are only asking that you help him get the opportunity to prove his innocence to you and salvage his name. A fair trial, where the man who confessed to this crime actually testifies, where constitutional rights are respected and where the state prosecutors misconduct is not overlooked and subsequently rewarded with a federal judgeship. No, we want a fair trial...that's all.

That being said, if you can get behind the idea of Imam Jamil or anyone for that matter finally receiving a fair opportunity to prove their innocence, then please, sign and share our petition.

We must let District Attorney Paul Howard and The Fulton County Conviction Integrity Unit know that we are paying attention and we demand fairness and justice at the very least. 

Meet me on the front line, https://www.change.org/freeimamjamil

Sincerely, 

Kairi Al-Amin 
Attorney & Son of Imam Jamil Al-Amin FKA H. Rap Brown

Otis Jackson is a self‐proclaimed leader of the Almighty Vice Lord Nation (AVLN). Founded in the late 1950s, the AVLN is one of the oldest street gangs in Chicago.

According to Jackson, the group under his leadership was focused on rebuilding communities by pushing out drug dealers and violence.

In a never‐before published sworn deposition, Jackson recalls the events of the night of Thursday, March 16, 2000, in vivid detail.

It was a cool night as Jackson remembers. He wore a knee‐high black Islamic robe with black pants, a black kufi — Muslim head covering — underneath a tan hat, and a tan leather jacket. His silver sunglasses with yellow tint sat above his full beard and mustache.

He arrived at Mick’s around 7PM, when he realized his schedule had changed. He was no longer the food expediter in the kitchen; his title was now dishwasher/cook, which meant he would wash dishes and then help close the kitchen at night.

Since his title changed, he wasn’t required to work that Thursday night. It immediately dawned on him that he had a 10‐hour window to do whatever he wanted. As a parolee under house arrest, the opportunity to have truly free time was rare if even existent. Jackson decided to fill his new found freedom like most people fill their free time — he ran a few errands.

His first stop was the West End Mall where he got a bite to eat, did some shopping and then headed toward the West End community mosque, led by Al‐Amin. He knew it was a regular building off of Oak Street, but wasn’t sure which one exactly.

He parked his black Cadillac in an open field and walked down toward a house that turned out to be the mosque. He passed a black Mercedes before he got to the mosque, where he met a man named Lamar “Mustapha” Tanner. They talked for a while during which Jackson explained to Tanner that he was looking for Al‐Amin to talk about how the AVLN could help Al‐Amin’s community.

Tanner told Jackson to check the grocery store, since Al‐Amin could usually be found there. Tanner then gave Jackson his phone number and hurried away to go pick up his wife. Jackson proceeded to the grocery store. He wanted to discuss with Al‐Amin how his AVLN organization could help further clean the streets of drug dealers in the West End community.

By the time Jackson made his way to Al‐Amin’s store, it was already late. He was afraid the store would be closed since he didn’t see anyone else on the street. His fear was affirmed; the store wasn’t open.

Hoping that maybe the owner would be in the back closing up, he knocked on the door a few more times. No answer. As he turned to leave, Jackson saw a patrol car pull up. By the time Jackson walked by the black Mercedes, the patrol car was parked in front of it, nose‐to‐nose. The driver of the patrol car got out and asked Jackson to put his hands up.

Immediately, this scenario flashed through Jackson’s head: Here he was, violating his parole by not being at work, with a 9mm handgun in his waist. Jackson was afraid the cops would think he was breaking into the store. That meant they would probably frisk him and find the gun. The gun would be a direct violation of his parole; he’d be sent back to prison in Nevada.

Jackson ignored the order to put his hands up and instead began to explain that he was not trying to break into the store. He stated that he wasn’t trying to steal the Mercedes either; his car was parked down the street. Both officers were out of the car with guns drawn and demanding Jackson put his hands up. The cops were closing in and there was little space between them. Jackson made a quick decision. He backed up against the Mercedes, pulled out his gun and began to fire.

He fired off two shots. The officers, while retreating, returned fire. Jackson wasn’t hit and bolted toward his car, where in the trunk he had an arsenal of other weapons. As Jackson explains, “the organization I was about to form, the Almighty Vice Lord Nation, we’re anti‐oppression, and we fight, you know, drug dealers and what not, so…we need artillery.”

He quickly opened the trunk — the lock was broken and held together with shoe string — and grabbed a lightweight, semiautomatic carbine Ruger Mini‐14 with an extended clip housing 40 .223 caliber rounds. Jackson then headed back toward the cops; one was moving for cover behind the Mercedes, the other was on the police radio screaming for backup.

Jackson approached the officer he thought was the most aggressive, who was using the Mercedes for cover and resumed firing his rifle. The officer returned fire, hitting Jackson in the upper left arm twice.

Jackson, now angered and fearful for his life, shot back, downing the officer. Jackson stood over him and shot him in the groin up to four times. The fallen officer, Deputy Kinchen, in a last attempt to plead with his killer, described his family, mother, and children to Jackson, hoping for mercy.

But Jackson admits that by this time, “my mind was gone, so I really wasn’t paying attention.” Jackson fired again at the officer on the ground. Dripping his own blood on the concrete where he stood, Jackson then turned his attention to Deputy English who was running toward the open field. Jackson believed English was flagging down another officer; he couldn’t let him get away.

Jackson hit English four times. One shot hit him in the leg; he soon fell, screaming, thereby confirming Jackson’s shot. After English went down, Jackson, in a state of shock, walked down pass the mosque.

Nursing his bleeding wounds, he tried to stop three passing cars on the road; no one dared pull over. He then walked back down the street and knocked on three different doors for assistance. Only one even turned the light on, but no one opened the door for Jackson. He then made his way back to his car and drove to his mother’s home.

As he walked in the door, the phone rang. His mother was asleep, so Jackson hurriedly answered it in the other room. It was a representative from the Sentinel Company that provided the monitoring service for Jackson’s ankle bracelet. The man on the phone asked where Jackson was; he responded that he was at work. The Sentinel representative explained that his unaccounted for absence would have to be marked down as a violation. Jackson agreed and quickly ended the conversation.

Although one bullet exited through the back of his arm, the other was still lodged in his upper left arm. Jackson called a couple of female friends, who were registered nurses. The women, who were informed by Jackson that he was robbed in the middle of the night, arrived at his house and worked for three hours to remove the bullet from his arm. Jackson then called Mustapha Tanner, whom he just met earlier in the evening, and asked him to come by his house.

Tanner arrived before 10am. Jackson explained what had happened the previous night and said he needed to get rid of the guns and the car. Jackson’s car trunk contained enough artillery for a mini-militia: three Ruger Mini‐14 rifles, an M16 assault rifle, a .45 handgun, three 9mm handguns and a couple of shotguns. Once Tanner left, Jackson called his parole officer Sarah Bacon and let her know that he “had been involved in a situation,” but left out the details.

In the following days, Jackson was asked to report to the Sentinel Company. He checked in with the monitoring company and his parole officer, and was then given a ride back home. As they pulled onto his street, Jackson noticed many unmarked police cars. After entering his driveway, multiple police officers emerged. The police searched Jackson’s house and found rounds of Mini‐14, .223, 9mm, and M16 ammunition. Jackson’s bloody clothes and boots from the shootout with the deputies the night before were left untouched in his closet.

On March 28, 2000, Jackson’s parole was revoked and he was sent back to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence in Nevada. Upon his detainment in Florida and later transfer to Nevada, Jackson confessed the crime to anyone who would listen. Jackson claims that when he reached the Clark County Jail in Las Vegas, Nevada, he made numerous phone calls to the F.B.I., after which an agent arrived to discuss the incident with him. Jackson recalls telling his story to “Special Agent Mahoney.”

Special Agent Devon Mahoney recalls documenting the confession, but not much beyond that. Mahoney remembers getting a call from a superior to “talk to someone” in a Las Vegas jail and then to “document it and file it up the chain of command.” The confession was documented and filed on June 29, 2000.

Fulton County Conviction Integrity Unit Mission Statement and Statement From The DA 

"The Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) will conduct collaborative, good-faith case reviews designed to ensure the integrity of a conviction and remedy wrongful convictions, as well as establish policies and procedures to learn from the errors identified so the criminal justice system is strengthened. 

Mr. Paul Howard, Fulton County District Attorney, believes prosecutors can and should be leading the charge to ensure the public has confidence in the criminal justice system. In recent years, DNA exonerations have shown flaws in our system. Mr. Howard is committed to finding any flaws in convictions his office has obtained, correcting those flaws, and preventing them in the future." 

11th Circuit Court Of Appeals Statement On The Prosecution (a member of the district attorneys office) 

"We regret that we cannot provide Mr. Al-Amin relief in the face of the prosecutorial misconduct that occurred at his trial. A prosecutor’s duty in a criminal proceeding is not to secure a conviction by any means, but to ensure that justice will prevail. See Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 88 (1935). The prosecutor at Al-Amin’s trial failed to live up to that duty."

Standard of Review

"The District Court also failed to consider the most direct evidence of a "substantial and injurious effect or influence" on the verdict: a juror's affidavit, admitted in the state habeas proceeding, attesting that Mr. Al-Amin's failure to testify - the entire point of the prosecution's mock cross-examination - constituted the "main thing" leading the jury to convict him." 

1. Agent Ron Campbell with the FBI was not originally assigned to this case.  He however insisted he be apart of the arresting team and then subsequently insisted that he drive alone in his own vehicle instead of riding with the team he begged to be apart of.
2. Agent Campbell is the only person who can establish complete chain of custody for the “evidence” in this case because he was the only agent present at both the crime scene and the arrest site who drove alone from one location to the other.  
3. Agent Campbell is also the only agent to get “separated” from the team once the search began.  The location where Agent Campbell was separated happens to also be the location where the fingerprintless gun was found.
4. Agent Campbell has a history of planting fingerprint-less guns at crime scenes. In the other instance, he planted the gun only after shooting the suspect in the back of the head so I guess we are lucky.
5. Agent Campbell was also a key witness for the prosecution (yes it is ridiculous) and while being cross examined, he was caught lying under oath.  Upon being caught, he admitted to being at the location where he is once again accused of planting evidence with no explanation as to why.
6. Deputy Aldranon English, the surviving victim of the crime gave a vivid and detailed description of the shooter, “5’9 with cold grey eyes” were his primary descriptors.  Mr. Al- Amin/Imam Jamil is 6’5 with brown eyes.
7. Deputy English also reported shooting his shooter.  Mr. Al-Amin/Imam Jamil was not shot.
8. Bernadette Davy, the firearms examiner in this case, breached protocol when examining the evidence resulting in faulty results and analysis. She was later  fired from the State for breaching protocol when examining evidence in her cases resulting in faulty results and analysis...Yes really...
9. Mr. Al-Amin exercised his right not to testify at trial.  Instead of honoring his wishes, The State conducted an impromptu mock cross examination of Mr. Al-Amin where they asked him questions and then hypothetically answered them for the jury during closing arguments.
10. On appeal, The Courts agreed that Mr. Al-Amin’s Constitutional Rights were violated by the mock cross examination, but the violation did not impact the outcome even after the jury conceded a primary reason for the guilty vote was the spotlight placed on him exercising those rights?
11. There was and is no physical evidence linking Mr. Al-Amin to the crime.
12. Otis Jackson committed the crime that Mr. Al-Amin is currently serving life in prison for. Jackson later confessed and signed an Affidavit only for it later to be dismissed and suppressed.
13. Mr. Al-Amin was ordered not to speak to the media or public during his trial and has since been denied the opportunity to tell his story despite numerous requests from media and scholars alike.
14. Mr. Al-Amin has served the majority of these last 18+  years in 23 hour solitary confinement for his “protection.”
15. Mr. Al-Amin was handed from state custody to federal custody with no notification, held without communication and locked up in numerous locations across the country away from his  legal team, family and support system...with no federal charges.
16. After all of that, Imam Jamil Al-Amin formerly H. Rap Brown has the opportunity to see freedom.  We just need a little help.

Address

Ways to get involved immediately

• Sign and Share The Petition (Click Here)
• Purchase a piece or pieces of merch to support the cause
• Spread the word on social media 

Free Rap, Free Imam Jamil...Free My Father!